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Edit: Someone associated with Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (awesome name) has contacted me to let me know that they weren’t even aware of the existence of Sad Puppy until AFTER their nomination, and are less than pleased about it. More on that later.

In many categories, I actually had to list off the rare selections that weren’t from the Sad Puppy slate, the Hugo Award’s first ever official political party. I should note that they’re unlikely to win many of them, since they don’t actually possess a majority- they instead exploited the fact that nominees seldom get more than a relatively small number of the votes, since there are a huge number of nominees to start with- people have different tastes, so it isn’t uncommon for there to be dozens of nominated best novels, for instance. It didn’t take that many votes for them to sweep the nominations. They claim that they’re doing it entirely on artistic merit, but since they also claim they’re doing it to fight supposed SJW conspiracies even more frequently, have a clearly organized structure, and are dedicated to voting as a bloc, I can confidently say that yes, it is political. The Hugos have always been political- it’s an award ceremony. They’re ALWAYS political. Sad Puppy, however, is the first of its kind. Frankly, I think it’s a terrible thing. I’ve tried to give them a fair shake, and I’m going to continue to do my best to do so, but I’m going to be very up front about the fact that I consider them to be both violating the spirit of the Hugos and associating with some frankly terrible people. (Well, mostly just Vox Day/Theodore Beale, professional racist/sexist/homophobe/transphobe/internet troll/pickup artist/Gamergate spokesman/ writer, and the only person ever kicked out of the SFWA. He highjacked their official Twitter feed to relay racist comments directed at another author.) My roommate remarked that this whole situation is very reminiscent of much of the current American political scene- his exact description was that it was a microcosm of the macrocosm, which I found rather apt. This piece outlines a course of action that I agree with pretty strongly- simply vote No Award above any piece on a political slate.

BEST NOVEL (1827 ballots)

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)

Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos (47North)

Skin Game: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Roc Books)

There are three Sad Puppies entries here- only Ancillary Sword and The Goblin Emperor are not on the list. I’m personally rooting for The Goblin Emperor- I’d be okay with Ancillary Sword winning, even though I thought that it wasn’t quite as good as Ancillary Justice (still great, though.) Skin Game was good, too- it’s a Dresden Files novel, though, and I’m a bit of a fanboy for Jim Butcher. I will, of course, read Lines of Departure and The Dark Before the Stars before making any firm decision. None of the nominated best novel authors listed on the Sad Puppy slate are a part of it, or have even provided any public commentary. Marko Kloos, however, retweeted a link to a blog post by John Scalzi that is distinctly and pointedly critical of Sad Puppies. That being said, none of the three appear to have repudiated Sad Puppies, either. In addition, Larry Correia reports to have declined a slot as a Hugo nominee, for the stated purpose of not having it be about him, and not distracting from the actual issues. Whether you think it is a classy move or a politically savvy one, it is certainly an intelligent move.

BEST NOVELLA (1083 ballots)

Big Boys Don’t Cry by Tom Kratman (Castalia House)

“Flow” by Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, Nov 2014)

One Bright Star to Guide Them by John C. Wright (Castalia House)

“Pale Realms of Shade” by John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)

“The Plural of Helen of Troy” by John C. Wright (City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, Castalia House)

This one is entirely dominated by Sad Puppy listings- while the last two are not actually on the slate, John C. Wright is a bit of a linebacker for Sad Puppy, and the stories are listed on Rabid Puppy, Vox Day’s more hardline slate, which nonetheless has considerable overlap.

Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth by John C. Wright (Castalia House)

“Why Science is Never Settled” by Tedd Roberts (Baen.com)

Wisdom from my Internet by Michael Z. Williamson (Patriarchy Press)

Well, hey, look, it’s… wait, nope, it’s literally the Sad Puppy slate again. There are so many pieces in so many categories that should have been nominated and didn’t- Shadows Beneath, the Writing Excuses podcast short story anthology/ writing guide, which is one of the best writing resources I’ve run across in years, got totally ignored, thanks to Sad Puppy.

Hey, look! Only a single Sad Puppy item, and that’s Zombie Nation! It’s somewhat odd that the Sad Puppy slate only included a single graphic story, isn’t it? Could it perhaps be because they don’t have any comic book writers or artists among their ranks? Considering that last year their only nomination was for a webcomic that was ineligible that year, this is pretty unsurprising. As for the rest of the nominees: Ms. Marvel, Saga, and Sex Criminals are all in my pull. I’ll give the other two a try, but I’m probably going to root for Saga. (I’d be fine with either of the other two in my pull winning, they’re both great.)

Game of Thrones: “The Mountain and the Viper” written by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, directed by Alex Graves ((HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)

Orphan Black: “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”written by Graham Manson, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions, Space/BBC America)

Hah. Try as they like, even the Sad Puppy crowd should know that they can’t challenge the usual Whovian hordes. Listen was a pretty good episode, to be fair. (I preferred Time Heist, but I’m a giant sucker for heists, whether they’re good or not.) Again, though, it’s a pretty inoffensive slate on the part of Sad Puppies.

BEST EDITOR (SHORT FORM) (870 ballots)

Jennifer Brozek

Vox Day

Mike Resnick

Edmund R. Schubert

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Sad/Rabid Puppy victory again. It should be noted that Vox Day’s inclusion here is purely due to his own campaigning on his behalf. He wasn’t included on the Sad Puppy list.

BEST EDITOR (LONG FORM) (712 ballots)

Vox Day

Sheila Gilbert

Jim Minz

Anne Sowards

Toni Weisskopf

Sad/Rabid Puppy victory again. Vox Day, again, was not included on the Sad Puppy list here, so is entirely here due to his own Rabid Puppy list.

Abyss & Apex and Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine appear to be the only Puppy titles, the latter of which apparently had no idea about any of this until recently, and is less than pleased with Sad Puppy magazine.

Galactic Suburbia and Tea and Jeopardy are not affiliated with the Puppy lists, although the rest are.

BEST FAN WRITER (777 ballots)

Dave Freer

Amanda S. Green

Jeffro Johnson

Laura J. Mixon

Cedar Sanderson

Laura Mixon appears to be the only non-puppy writer on the list.

BEST FAN ARTIST (296 ballots)

Ninni Aalto

Brad Foster

Elizabeth Leggett

Spring Schoenhuth

Steve Stiles

Sad/Rabid Puppies don’t have a best Fan Artist list.

CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (851 ballots)

Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2013 or 2014, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award).

Wesley Chu *

Jason Cordova

Kary English *

Rolf Nelson

Eric. S. Raymond

*Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.

I frankly have no idea why they included their Campbell Award picks- it’s a juried award. I can definitely say that they’re unlikely to be swayed by Sad Puppy- I took classes with James Gunn and Chris McKitterick at the University of Kansas, and can definitely vouch that they take the selections very seriously, and I believe the other jurors do as well, from what I know of them.

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11 comments

Please note that Andromeda Spaceways didn’t ask to be included and was not asked at all if we wanted to be on the SP slate. We had never even HEARD of this group or the U.S. fandom quarrel till Friday. By that time, it was too late to ask to be removed. Thank you, SP, for turning something we were thrilled about into something that will probably lose us sales!

Ouch. That’s brutal. I’ll update the post accordingly when I get home, and probably do an entirely new post talking about this sort of thing. Let me know if there’s any sort of official statement you’d like me to post.

Thanks, Mountainwashere! We will be putting up something on our web site andromedaspaceways.com, but meanwhile, there’s a post on my Blogger blog http://suebursztynski.blogspot.com and on simonpetrie.wordpress.com.

And you can call me Sue. Sorry, but Raventracks is my WordPress handle and WordPress blogs mostly don’t let me sign in with my Google account. Including, I think, yours. That’s my name on the Hugo Ballot, along with David Kernot.

I figured that out, though it took a second because of the Google/Wordpress issue. I’m planning on assembling a list of everyone who objects/ has reservations about being included on the Sad and Rabid Puppy lists, so I can try to get your plight a little more publicity.

Ah, for your notes, there’s two separate John W. Campbell awards. There’s the juried award for best novel, and there’s the JWC for best new author, and while it is Not A Hugo, it’s nominated and voted for just like the Hugos.